A priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Dnipropetrovsk Region was sentenced to 5 years in prison for supporting Russiaʼs war against Ukraine.
This is reported by the Security Service of Ukraine.
The court found him guilty of justifying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code).
The priest was detained in September 2022. During the searches, phones were found in his apartment, which contained files with Kremlin propaganda. The SBU established that the archpriest himself was engaged in propaganda and spread it among local residents. He suggested that they go to Russia or to the occupied territory to help the occupying forces.
- At the end of January, the abbot of one of the temples of the Vinnytsia diocese of the UOC MP was sentenced to two years in prison for justifying the Russian invasion.
- In October 2023, the SBU reported that since the beginning of the war, it had exposed more than 60 representatives of the UOC-MP — they worked for the Russian Federation, sold weapons and child pornography.